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How Old Is The Forum & Who Were The Earliest Members?

Having been off the boards for longer than I can remember, I must express my admiration for those fellow members that were in there at the start, and are still here sprinkling these threads with this observations, comments, erudition and wisdom. Give yourselves a pat on the back, for your commitment and staying power! Not many subjects prove as inexhaustible and engaging as Forteana.
 
It's great to see you back!

I love the road ghosts.
 
My own beginnings on the Forum were around Sept. 2001 while I was off work for some weeks after surgery. The boards were a welcome discovery to while away the hours into the early ones. My original avatar was simply 'Hermes', before the re-set some time later that wiped original names and postings history. This was, of course, the time of 9/11, which inevitably was an hot subject of discussion and speculation. Among those I encountered nightly were Rynner, Yithian, James Whitehead, Escargot, Cujo.
 
Most kind! For my part I'm very glad to see so many old hands still here, and that quite a few have come back. means we're doing something right :).
 
I guess I may be an old timer now, but I like to think of myself as a youth-gang member a la the Living Dead motorcycle gang in Psychomania, assaulting fruit carts wherever they hide on the village green.

I remember the people you speak of! Plus SherbertBizzare, the Virgin Queen (quite an extreme fellow as I recall) and some people whose personalities I can recall if not their handles.
 
OriginalHermes said:
Among those I encountered nightly were Rynner, Yithian, James Whitehead, Escargot, Cujo.
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I recall those nights quite vividly! It was still something of a novelty to interact live with other posters. I can also recall the size of the bills, when every hour online was charged as a local phone call.

I have occasionally checked up on Roadghosts and I am delighted it has reached print. :glee:
 
Chatroom? I don't remember a chatroom.
 
Well, RL means I don't post as much as I did, but I'll probably be here until I fall off my perch!

It's good to have old friends around, but some of the newer posters have also fitted in well, which is good to see. :)
 
JamesWhitehead said:
I recall those nights quite vividly! It was still something of a novelty to interact live with other posters. I can also recall the size of the bills, when every hour online was charged as a local phone call.I have occasionally checked up on Roadghosts and I am delighted it has reached print. :glee:
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Hi James, and thanks. You're quite right - the old dial-up connection took its toll on the phone bill alright, but it was indeed a novel and cathartic way to spend the evenings!
 
What about... Captain Buttock? :eek:
 
OriginalHermes said:
Yes, I remember. It must have been like trying to moderate Trump's Tweets!
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Whack-a-mole, mate.
escargot1 said:
What about... Captain Buttock? :eek:
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His ghost still haunts the Troll's. I sometimes glimpse him out of the corner of my nostril in the very early hours. His old caravan rocks rhythmically on occasion all by itself.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Chatroom? I don't remember a chatroom.
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Oh yes. I remember talking to someone about stickmen/people, or maybe shadow people, which was difficult as I'd not previously encountered the concept. I think it was 'Hospitaller' and a couple of others in there.

JamesWhitehead said:
I recall those nights quite vividly! It was still something of a novelty to interact live with other posters. I can also recall the size of the bills, when every hour online was charged as a local phone call. :glee:
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Yes indeed: Freeserve dial-up at a penny a minute in my case! Ruinous.

A year or so back I installed, in a fit of impetuousness, a browser add-on that replicated the old nyahhhh-oy-oy-oy-kitcrsxschhh-ner-ner-ner modem sounds. Thought it might be nostalgic, but it was fucking infuriating.
 
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I was never invited to a chatroom and had no idea how to go about getting into one.

Anyway, I was far too busy chatting to Techy. I discovered him and this place at around the same time.
 
I never used the chatroom, but there was an IRC channel somebody set up for board members. If memory serves, Melf, Inveurie Jones, Lord Flasheart, Sally, The Virgin Queen (?) And others were semi-frequent users.
 
escargot1 said:
I was never invited to a chatroom and had no idea how to go about getting into one..
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It was physically built in to v1 of the board via a link at the top. If you were signed in you could access it - but then put whatever name you wanted on the "active members" list in the room itself. You can see where that went.. we ended up only enabling the room when there was a mod logged on, and eventually just disabled it permanently, and it was dropped from the v2 version altogether.
 
So that's where the old board's reputation as a knocking shop came from? :D
 
Forum started tail end of 2001 - August or September, I think.
 
OriginalHermes said:
Having been off the boards for longer than I can remember, I must express my admiration for those fellow members that were in there at the start, and are still here sprinkling these threads with this observations, comments, erudition and wisdom. Give yourselves a pat on the back, for your commitment and staying power! Not many subjects prove as inexhaustible and engaging as Forteana.
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Welcome back Hermes - really happy you are still around; I’ve been a regular visitor to your Road Ghosts site over the years, and your book is definitely on this month’s shopping list.

Now, let’s make up for lost time. How about you run your expert eye over the Stocksbridge Bypass ghost thread.

Also – a little side interest of mine – the Sprinting spooks? thread. I hesitate to even call this a sub-genre any more, as the examples are so scarce. But still, I find them intriguing - and they do seem to be associated with roads. Maybe you can add some meat?
 
Welcome back. I have just realised that have been posting on here since 2004 and fairly certain I was lurking a long time before that. Wow. And in that time only 634 posts. Does that make me the laziest board member ever?
 
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